Talents are minor abilities compared to Feats or Kits. They include proficiencies, languages, and many minor tricks that expand the use of a character's Skills. They also will include, for example, adding additional Auras to a character who (like a 3.5e Dragon Shaman) radiates many different auras for his party's benefit.

They do not (or should not, if I can figure out how to write them) require use of an action of their own. (However, they often add an extra effect to another action.) While they might get a little crazier as the game gets into Epic levels, the intent is for most Talents to have very short, simple descriptions.

Abilities that are short and simple like Talents, but too situational for characters to bother purchasing as a separate ability, are likely to be absorbed as a side-effect of an existing Feat or Kit.

Weapon Finesse - [Weapon Trick]Prerequisites:Benefit: Gain a Dexterity-based synergy bonus to the Impact of your melee attacks with light weapons. This replaces any Brawn-based modifiers to those attacks' Impact.

Seed - Fire - [Seed]Prerequisites: Caster Level 1 or Fire Heritage kit.Action: You may activate this seed using a swift action. Once activated, it remains active until you activate another Seed or lose consciousness.Benefit: While this seed is active, you may apply Fire Seed effects to spells you cast.

Shield Proficiency - [Proficiency]Prerequisites: Brawn 1 rank.Benefit: You are proficient with shields.Normal: A nonproficient character wielding a shield suffers a -2 penalty to Athletics, Dexterity, and Stealth skills.

Disguise - [Skill Trick]Prerequisites: Perception 2 ranks.Benefits:

When disguised as another creature, you may use your Charisma skill to see how convincing you are at impersonating them.

You may use your Stealth skill to avoid detection in a crowd, if you are disguised as a member of the crowd.

Normal: Creatures familiar with an impersonation target must merely pass a DC 10 Perception check to recognize an impersonator. You must use your Stealth skill or your Heroic Bonus, whichever is worse, to attempt to blend into a crowd.

Feats are the meat and drink of what a character does during combat. They are always abilities that you actively use and spend an action on (although some of them also have significant side effects that are always active). Most spells and combat maneuvers are Feats.

An exception to the normal rule might be Feats that don't require an action of their own, but significantly expand the use of Auras, Stances, Seeds, and other such minor abilities that a character can switch between. I haven't quite worked out how this is going to work exactly.

Two-Weapon FightingPrerequisites: Dexterity 3 ranks; Fighting Level 1.Action: Swift.Effect: If you have made a melee attack using your primary weapon this round, expend Momentum to make an attack with a light weapon in your off-hand.Benefits: While wielding a weapon in each hand, gain a +1 [shield] bonus to your Defense save. You may attack with a weapon in your off-hand normally, without any special penalties.Normal: A weapon in your off-hand counts as an improvised weapon.

Kits are the most important defining feature of a character; they represent archetypes and combinations of many abilities in one. They are CRE8's substitute for Classes. Thus, they are going to be the most difficult but most important part of the whole system to write and balance.

I will be starting a separate thread just to discuss Kits soon -- particularly, generic rewards that Kits can give out to characters who play to an archetype appropriately.

WizardPrerequisites: Knowledge 2 ranks; Lore of the Arcane talent; one [Seed] talent; must be literate.Benefits:

Caster Level +1

Gain a Knowledge-based synergy bonus to your MP pool.

Gain one [Seed] or [Spell] talent.

At the end of an extended rest, you may retrain one [Spell] feat, ignoring the normal rules for the time required to retrain. Your new feat must be a [spell] feat, which must be scribed in a spellbook or Tome that you have access to.

Drawback: Any encumbrance penalty to your Athletics, Dexterity, and Stealth skills (due to armor, shields, or too much equipment in general) also penalizes your Spellcraft check and the Accuracy of your spell attacks.

You may enter the Furious Rage or Furious Frenzy stances as an opportunity action.

While in the Furious Rage or Furious Frenzy stances, you may Replace Defense Saves with Fortitude Saves.

While in the Furious Rage or Furious Frenzy stances, you may expend Momentum as a free action to avoid being Clobbered by an attack that would otherwise Clobber you.

If an attack Wounds you while you are in the Furious Rage or Furious Frenzy stance, you may spend an opportunity action to gain Momentum. You may not do this if you had zero Vitality Points prior to the triggering attack.